Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1887-02-05
lNSURING BABIES.
MILLIONS OF DOLLARS OF RISKS
UPON CHILDREN.
A Wrinkle in the Insurance Bust
ness-Novel Method of Paying
Doctor and Undertaken.
Philadelphia Record. I

Philadelphia Record
Life insurance at retail and for chill
| dren' is the way they CURLY describe one
Of the latest innovations in the insurance
business. Insurance has generally been re-
garded as a luxury to be enjoyed only by
| the rich and adults. The last few years
have brought about such changes in the
methods of conducting the business of
several Of the prominent insurance compa-
MES that people of small means can by the
payment of small weekly sums secure the
payment of death benefits of few hun
dred dollars Beneficial societies promis-
ing the payment of various sums upon the
demise of members from assessments lev
led upon surviving members are not new
idea; but it is only within the last few
years that companies of the iold line" as
they are termed in the language of the
trade, have dealt in life insurance in small
sums, collecting regular stated premiums
and paying definite amounts. With this
innovation also came the application of the
principle TO the insurance of children of l
year of age and upward. In the short time
it has been in operation this branch of the
business has grown TO an extent almost be-
yond credence.
Infant insurance and the insurance of
adults for small amounts are the invention
of an English company, which began oper-
atoms over fifty years ago. and which has
developed the business to such an extent
that one-half of the entire population of
EprIanJ Ireland Scotland ap1 WaloS
enrolled on the books of the concern, and
its collections of premiums in sums of
few cents per week amount to millions of
pounds sterling every year. The precau-
tionary measure has become instructive
among the people of the middle classes.
AS illustrative of the extent to which this
retail insurance prevails in England it is
related that few years ago a scaffold sur
rounding high chimney in course of cree
ton collapsed and caused the death of
twenty eight men. Subsequently it trans
pired that all of the workingmen were in
sured in this company. 1t was only ten
years ago, however that the scheme found
its way across the water to this country,
and even now there are only few of the
old companies that write these very small
policies.
The operation of the system i'll use in
this country is somewhat as follows: Chill
dren are insured from the age of l year
upon the payment of three, five and ten
cents, or perhaps larger sum, per week,
death benefits being graded in proportion.
As an example, take the payment of five
cents per week For this. sum the compa-
nv will pay upon the death, within one
year after date of insurance, of child =
years of age the sum of SIS. Death after
one year will secure the payment of ST.;
and after two years, $40, and so on, gradu-
ally increasing until the limit of $129 is
reached, payable upon the death of child
after eleven years from the date of insur-
ance. The purpose in fixing the amount
of the benefit at such a low figure during the
extreme youth of the beneficiary is double.
In the infantile stage there is the greater
danger from the many complications to
which boyhood is subject and the risk to
the company is consequently greater, de-
creasing as the child advances in age. The
other reason is one even less pleasant to
contemplate. As insurance of this kind is
usually practiced by the poorer classes of
people, there have not been wanting nu-
merous would be benefactors who have
raised the cry that in this form of insurance
the companies were practically offering in
ducements to poor parents to put their
children out of the way by foul means for
u,
where the whole system originated there
was such a hue and cry that Parliament
ordered rigid investigation of the deaths
of the infants upon whose lives insurance
had been placed. Thousands of cases were
investigated, and among them were found
but two instances which excited suspicion,
and for lack of any positive proof these
cases were simply reported as doubtful. a
similar course in this country failed as sig
nally to reveal any evidence of foul play
Notwithstanding these facts, the death ben
efits are started at such low point that
there could be no inducement offered to
Inscriptions parents.
Insurance paid for by small weekly pay
ments necessarily demands the employ
ment of an elaborate system in the conduct
of business of any importance. One of
the pioneer companies. which has in the
seven years of its existence written policies
for the insurance of about 800, 600 persons,
principally young children. has connected
with its agency g corps of tifty-two can
vassers and collectors whose receipts of
few cents per week from each insured per-
| son aggregate 81 100000 per year. The en-
tire city is Systematically divided into sec
tons, with all the details, marked in refer
ence to sanitary advantages and other i'm
pOrtant features. Some portions of the CITY
fictitious are prohibited to agents. The So
licitors secure their customers, who are
subjected to examination by medical in
spector and, after insurance has been
placed, the canvasser collects the small
premium each week.
But three or four companies have entered
this branch of the business, but their trans
actions are something immense considering
the insignificant basis of tie business. 1t
is estimated that their patrons number
about 100000 whose payments, averaging
eight cents per week, reach the imposing
sum of $4,000 900 per year.
The small amount of insurance which is
secured practically amounts to sum suf
ficient merely to pay the undertakers' and
doctors bills. In this light ii is regarded
by these important and unwecome func-
tionaries, and it is fact of interest that
since this system has come into vogue I'M
dertakers and physicians are much more
willing to render service to poor people,
looking to this small insurance for their
pay.
The decision in reference to baby insur-
ance rendered by Judge Barrett, of New
York, last week, declaring the business of
company practicing in that city illegal,
| caused some CONSERVATION among parents
whose little ones are insured for small
sums. This decision, however, referred to
another and entirely distinct kind of insu-
rance-that of the mutual benefit or assess
ment societies. These societies levy stated
| assessment upon each member whenever
death occurs the proceeds furnishing the
death benefit. While the legality of this
system remains unquestioned as applied to
adults, Judge Barrett decided that it was
illegal for infants to be thus insured, as
they have no power to enter into the con-
tract necessary to secure their membership
| in such an organization. In the old line"
companies no such membership is re-
quired, the company agreeing for the pay
ment of small weekly sum TO insure the
life of the party making the agreement or
OF any third person designated.
The Hirh License Isili in New York,